













































































































































































WOMAN 


(> 

IN 


Civil Service Reform. 


Mrs. HUGH L. BRINKLEY. 

f f 


J 


“Give a woman a chance for independence, and you give her a 
chance for virtue. Open one more door to labor, and you close one 
more door on vice ”—Page 37. 

“Ah! a gallant's bow on the promenade and a smile in the parlor 
may be a consideration to the woman who has the ivorld at her feet, 
but they will not be worth a moment's thought when she feels the 
world clutching at her hungry throat .”—Page 42. 



1882. 
























V. 

* 

f <P V 

> 













CONTENTS 


The Educated Poor Woman and the Uneducated Poor Woman. 7 

A Fair Field and no Favor. . . . . .11 

The Hack Politician Protests. . . . . .13 

A Leaf From Personal Experience. . . . .15 

The Point at Issue. . . . . . . 18 

The Murmurers Approach. ..... 20 

Woman a Formidable Rival of Man. . . . .21 

Let us Have a Chance at the Glut. . . . .24 

Civil Service Reform. . . . . . 26 

The Hack Politician’s Golden Rule. .... 27 

Civil Service Reform Young and Timid. . . . .28 

Examination of Candidates. ..... 29 

Another Leaf From Personal Experience. . . . .29 

A Suggestive Interrogatory. ..... 32 

Query of the Knowing Politician. . . . . .34 

He Smiles Prematurely. . . . . . .35 

A Mysterious Element that Figures about Election Times. . 35 

Another Protest Answered. ..... 3G 

An Appeal— 

To Men. . . . .... 40 

To Women. . . . ... 41 

To Society Women. . . . ... 42 

To the Law Makers. . . ... 44 

To the Cabinet. . . . ... 44 

To the President. . . . ... 45 



































































WOMAN IN CIVIL SEEVICE EEEOEM, 


Without alluding in any way to disputed political points, it is 
absolute fact, that we American women are human beings, not 
household animals. Whether we vote or not, whether we ought to 
have a vote or no, we American women are to this extent American 
citizens, in that we are entitled to equal laws; that we have 
equal rights with men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness j 
that we have, or ought to have, equal rights with men to work or to 
win wages, an equal right to all the chances at money or fortune, of 
which we can avail ourselves. 

The right to labor is based upon the needs and the capacities of 
the would-be laborer. Now a woman’s needs are as urgent as those 
of a man, while her capacity for ordinary avocation is about the 
same. In the few departments of work and dexterity which are open 
to her she holds her own j and even in those lines in which thus far 
she has been found incompetent or incomplete, why is she thus ? 
Simply because it has ever been taken for granted by men that she 
is, and because she herself has ever taken it for granted that she 
is so. 

The negroes were in this country held for years to be fit only for 
slavery, and while this idea held it was true. But as soon as the 



6 


negroes obtained their chance, it was found that they were capable of 
being fitted for freedom. So with woman. So long as she is held 
to be incompetent for special lines of business, incompetent for that 
special line she will be; but when the theory is reversed the facts will 
be reversed also. 

A right makes right. Give a woman the right to work—to earn— 
even to vote, like a man, and it will soon be found that it is right it 
should be so. 

And surely a woman has a natural right to all the rights she can 
secure and maintain. God knows she needs them all, for in a 
country like ours, where there is no landed aristocracy and no settled 
wealth—in this country of strikes and panics, and shrinkage of 
values, and commercial revolutions, and speculations and bankruptcy, 
the number of rich people who suddenly find themselves poor, is 
large, so large as to challenge the earnest attention of the sociologist 
and the moralist, of the thinker and the speaker—while the army of 
women whose pecuniary and social condition trembles on the very 
verge of the balance, vibrating on the edge of that abyss which 
divides comfort and independence from a dependence oh charity, is 
immense, when looked at from the standpoint of the philanthropist 
or the philosopher. Consequently as a woman—as a wellvvislier for 
my sex—I am justified, nay, by my sense of duty I am compelled, to 
consider the condition of woman, her chances and her rights. There¬ 
fore, without further preface, only with an earnest request that my 
hearers will not only “ lend me for a while their ears,” but give mo 
their whole hearts, I will proceed to consider the subject. 

I propose in this address—this plea of a woman for women_to- 


7 


point out the inadequate, the frightfully insufficient provisions which 
the world has made for the helpless gentlewomen cast suddenly and 
involuntarily upon its stony-hearted bosom. It is but trifling with 
the truth to say that there is anything that even approaches adequate 
provision for the “ lady ” who is suddenly thrown upon her own re¬ 
sources. It is sheer falsification to pretend to say that woman is 
provided for to one tithe the degree of man in similar circumstances. 

The woman of the lower social class, the woman thrown upon her 
own resources from childhood, prepares herself for a future as all men 
are prepared. But the woman of the higher social grade, the class 
termed “ ladies” in this country and “ gentlewomen” abroad, the 
vives, sisters and daughters of men who were once well off, women 
who, to use a sad but common figure of speech, “have seen better 
days,” the special class for whom this work is written, are unfor¬ 
tunately not reared for any work, and are practically excluded from 
those numerous occupations which women of a more humble grade 
enter as a matter of course. 

The average gentleman suddenly reduced has his choice of a hun¬ 
dred fairly paid, respectable avocations; but the reduced “lady” 
has no avocation open to her by which she can live with any degree 
of comfort. True, there are opportunities enough for the extremes of 
the female scale—for the woman who is without education, who has 
no ability, no aspirations above her daily bread, who makes no pre¬ 
tensions to refinement. True, there is provision also for the woman 
of precisely the opposite stamp, extraordinary women, women of 
genius; there is a place all ready for the Charlotte Cushmans, and 
the George Eliots, and the Rosa Bonheurs; brains and work prac- 


8 


tically directed will tell alike in men and women. But wliat of the 
refined, educated woman, nurtured in luxury, whose soul compre¬ 
hends and craves all the refinements of life, hut who lacks the trained 
skill to gratify her cravings ? What of the woman who has all the 
refined instincts and cultured tastes of the artist, without the artistic 
talent and training? What of her? Must she want, or beg, or must 
she be forced, simply because she is poor and a woman, down to the 
level of the menial ? Is there to be no other chance for her ? Is there 
to be no alternative but starvation, servitude, sin, or suicide ? 

A man suddenly reduced to this position, even though he were 
more ignorant and less refined than she, would have a dozen avenues 
open to him for work; u the world is all before him where to choose.” 
The world to her is but a shop, a nursery, or a kitchen. Nor will it 
do to repeat the popular platitudes, that u necessity knows no law,” 
that “beggars must not be choosers;” nor will it do to dismiss the 
matter with a sneer, to infer that a lady deprived of her externals has 
no right to 11 pride.” Is a poor u gentleman” expected to bend his 
energies to becoming a day laborer or a waiter? Is he called 
“proud” because he naturally expects to find something better to do 
than to carry a hod or a tray ? Is he sneered at if he aims at some¬ 
thing better, even in his poverty, than drudgery or servitude? Is 
he not rather looked upon with deserved respect, if he refuses to 
black boots until, at least, he has tried every other wav to earn a 
living ? On what ground, then, is a woman to be satirized for simply 
striving to do that for which a man is honored ? Why should that 
quality, which in a man is glorified as “ ambition,” be in a woman 
stigmatized as u false pride ?” The world has always been unfair to 




9 


its women. It places them upon a dizzy pinnacle for which too oft 
they are unfit, or it consigns them to social depths for which they are 
altogether unprepared. Society makes a goddess of the woman who 
is rich, and makes a martyr of the woman who is poor. 

Besides, advancing from the consideration of the lady as an indi¬ 
vidual to that of woman in the aggregate, we find on a calm, dispas¬ 
sionate survey of the situation, that the ranks of the lower classes of 
women who are poor are already sufficiently numerous and are swell¬ 
ing every day. Every week there are hundreds of servants, shop¬ 
girls, and seamstresses, who are only fitted and only anxious to be¬ 
come such, added to the thousands who have gone before. Conse¬ 
quently the best interests of these people imperatively demand that 
there should be no interlopers, even from a superior sphere. It is for 
the welfare of the servant, the shop-girl, the seamstress and others 
of this class, as for the educated woman, that there should be no 
rivalry of work—there should not be, there must not be competition 
between classes so allied in position though so antagonistic in char¬ 
acter. Each class has its own dangers, its own trials, and its own 
rights, and chief among these rights is the right to work in its own 
way for its own good. 

Those who would confuse the classes into which humanity naturally 
divides itself, who would strive to ignore social and individual dis¬ 
tinctions, are but the blind ministers of chaos. 

In this there is no scorn for the seamstress, the shop-girl, or the 
menial. God forbid that honest labor ever should be aught but 
honored; but there is simply a true appreciation, alike of the oper¬ 
ative and of the educated woman, and of the difference between them. 


10 


But in order to avoid the competition between the poor uneducated 
woman and the educated, refined poor woman, it is absolutely 
essential that the world should increase the avenues of employment 
for the latter. 

What do we mean by increasing the avenues of employment for 
the lady or gentlewoman, or rather on what principle or basis would 
we increase these avenues'? The last question covers the entire 
ground, and can be answered in one sentence. Open to woman every 
chance for a livelihood that is open to man—nothing more, nothing 
less. 

By all means nothing less; in the name of humanity nothing less; 
by all that is sacred in womanhood, motherhood, wifehood, nothing 
less. Think what it means to be a refined, educated woman, and des¬ 
titute. Ponder, if only for a moment, the infinite mortifications and 
privations which afflict the soul and body of the delicately framed 
and still more delicately reared woman who has suddenly met face to 
face with poverty. Where are her feasts of former days? gone with 
her former friends. Where are the silks and velvets of olden times ? 
lying on the well filled shelves of the dingy pawnshops. Where 
are the rings and trinkets once so prized as the tokens of love? sold, 
sold to buy mere bread. Eating scanty food, wearing scanty cloth¬ 
ing, shivering over a scanty fire, holding in her shrunken fingers a 
scanty purse. In God’s name, would you, can you call yourself a 
man, and so much as think of lessening the at best too scanty chances 
open to this creature? Can you call yourself a Christian, and dream 
of adding to this wretched creature’s already manifold temptations 
by narrowing her possible avenues of honest work? Can you for 


11 


one moment tliink of denying to this tenderly nurtured flower any 
chances for life that you extend to any and every experience hard¬ 
ened man? Oh! in Heaven’s name no less, and yet no more. I 
protest against any diminishing of woman’s chances as compared 
.with man’s, and yet I claim no increase of them. I make no special 
plea for woman; she is in the world and must be of it; let her take her 
chances, only let her have all the chances in it she can get—-no more, 
no less than man’s. A fair field—give her only this and she will 
ask no favors. 1 call upon no chivalry, I appeal to justice. Man’s 
chivalry has its poetic aspects it is true, but, alas! it is too often 
perverted; well meant, but all one sided. It yields to woman a host 
of points, pleasant yet of no vital importance, while it denies to her 
that best of earthly boons, her independence. So I waste no words 
on chivalry, fickle, misguided chivalry; I demand but right and jus¬ 
tice; and this brings me to the very heart of my subject. 

Now it is a somewhat singular fact, that although the government 
of this favored land is professedly purely republican, although it is the 
loudly vaunted claim of American political institutions, that they afford 
equal, and elsewhere unequaled facilities to all citizens, naturalized or 
native, black, white, red and yellow, Caucasian, Mongolian or Teu¬ 
ton, yet it is a fact that the governments of the 11 Old World,” which 
do not claim so much, afford far greater opportunities to the least in¬ 
fluential portion of their citizens—their women. British, French, 
Austrian, Italian and even Russian women, enjoy opportunities for 
supporting themselves by serving their respective governments which 
are not enjoyed in the same degree by the women of America. The 
governments of France and Great Britain especially utilize u gentle- 


12 


* 


women ” in their various departments as government telegraphists, 
receivers, postmistressess, clerks, accountants, etc., etc., to an extent 
as yet unknown in this free country. And it is no exaggeration 
to say that the 11 Civil Service ” of Great Britain and other 
European countries affords greater opportunities to women to¬ 
day than does the “Civil Sendee” of these United States of 
America. 

Is this right ? Is this just! Is it just either to America or to the 
women of America? Evidently and unanswerably, No! 

Therefore in behalf of American institutions and American women, 
as well as in the name of absolute right and justice itself, I demand 
and assert the absolute and just right of women to hold, fill and en¬ 
joy all offices under and within the gift of the Government of these 
United States, not in themselves political. 

We demand, in the name of national right and justice, that through¬ 
out the length and breadth of the land, from the Penobscot to the 
Pacific, from u God-voiced Niagara ” to where u rolls the mighty 
Oregon, and hears no sound save its own dashings,” each and all of 
these offices directly and indirectly in the gift of the government, 
and not in themselves of a political character, which are open toman, 
should be opened on precisely the same terms, under preciselv the 
same chances, to woman. 


13 


THE HACK POLITICIAN PROTESTS. 

^ pause awhile, for in my fancy’s ear I hear, as heard the dying 
one in Longfellow’s famous Indian poem, I hear a u wooing and a 
rushing like the falls of Minnehaha,” calling on me 'in the distance. 
But ’tis not the sound of u mighty w 7 aters,” ’tis not the roar of cata¬ 
ract that falls upon my listening ear • ’tis the roar of human indigna¬ 
tion, of ridicule, of vituperation and objection. 

Metliinks the hack politicians of the land, all the thousands of 
men who hold government clerkships now 7 , and all the thousands of 
thousands of men who hope to hold these clerkships in the u sweet 
by and by,” rise up against me and protest. But in the name of all 
that is right and just I protest now against their protests. I call 
upon the true statesmen of the land, the patriots; I call upon the 
representative wisdom and honor of the country in Congress assem¬ 
bled, to listen to my plea, to hear me patiently for my cause, and 
hearken without prejudice to the arguments I am prepared to bring 
forward as my advocates. And then when I have finished, if I have 
uttered reason and spoken truth, if I have advanced a plea for my 
sex which should open to us women the doors of equal rights to gov¬ 
ernmental work, then by all that is manly and American, I demand 
that these doors be opened unto us. 

One of the very strongest proofs that woman is fitted for these 
offices, is given in the fact, that here and there some of the minor 
offices in these same have been and are intrusted to women. In 


14 


Washington, in every department there are female clerks, many of 
whom are or have been ladies of high social position, ladies reared 
in affluence, and tolerably, though not technically, educated, who have 
been suddenly thrown upon their own resources. In the New York 
Custom House there are five or seven female detectives or searchers, 
whose duties are confined to the highly edifying task of searching 
the persons of females suspected of smuggling. There are a few 
postmistresses scattered along the mail routes of the far West, but 
these are but rare, very rare exceptions, instead of being, as I 
claim they should be, the illustration of a general rule. These are 
but sops thrown to the whale of public opinion, instead of being as 
they ought to be, the legitimate fruits of a recognized system. 

No—what I, and what those who think as I do, ask for, is not 
here and there to grant a woman a favor, in order to get rid of her, 
or to make political capital of her case, or to yield a trifle to public 
opinion, in order to temporarily appease it. We demand our rights 
as rights; we ask for an equal chance at all these offices, in all States 
and in all cities, subject only to precisely the same conditions as 
man. There is nothing wild in this claim, nothing absurd in this 
proposition, as I strive to utter it; calmly stating it in its simple 
clearness, it sounds as sensible as any average statement, and yet 
so far in the history of this great American Republic, it has been 
found impossible to realize it. Time after time has the American 
woman tried to earn a living by obtaining a governmental clerkship, 
such a one as would be readily obtainable by an American man, and 
time after time has she been taught the utter futility of any such at¬ 
tempt in this direction. Day after day has the American woman, 


# 


15 

who has suffered reverses at the hands of fate, been forced to suffer 
keener rebuff's at the hands of her own government. Day after day 
has she been refused a livelihood, because she was a woman , while 
she has been forced to see in bitterness of spirit the boon she craved, 
bestowed upon another, with perchance not half her ability, nor half 
her need, solely because he was a man. 


A LEAF FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 

Let me show from a leaf from my own personal experience how 
difficult it is, for a woman suddenly forced by circumstances to sup¬ 
port herself, to obtain any office in the gift of the United States Gov¬ 
ernment, though it be of a non-political character, simply and solely 
because she is a woman. 

Being well aware that hundreds, nay thousands, of average men, 
very average men, hold lucrative non-political governmental posi¬ 
tions in the City of New York—being likewise familiar with the 
workings of the female clerk departments at Washington, I deter¬ 
mined, at one crisis of my life, to apply for some non-political 
clerkship in the City of New York, of which city I was a 
resident. 

First, I applied to Mr. Hillhouse, the sub-treasurer j he was a 
thorough gentleman, and as such received me politely and listened to 
me respectfully. But he was also an officer of the government, and 
naturally enough was averse either to exceeding or falling short 
of his proper duty. As a man, he confessed to me that women were 
in general available for much of the work in his department, or 


16 


could readily be fitted for it. But as a government officer, he as¬ 
sured me that he could not employ women unless specially 
authorized to do so under instructions from Washington. The employ¬ 
ment of ladies in his department would be an innovation which might 
or might not be sanctioned, a bold experiment which might or might 
not be indorsed by his superiors; under the circumstances he did not 
propose to incur any responsibility, and under the circumstances I 
could not blame him personally. 

Dismayed but not defeated, heartsore and footsore, but sustained 
by the strongest supporters humanity can possibly possess under any 
of its numberless emergencies, integrity and necessity, I visited the 
New York Custom House. Here I was also most politely received, 
every courtesy was shown me ; as a lady I had nothing to complain 
of, but as a woman wanting work I was utterly ignored. I was 
favored with a personal interview with several officials j but alas ! the 
burden of their statements was u ever the same sad thing/’ They 
granted as a matter of theory that women might be fitted for many 
of the custom house positions, nay, they confessed, when I pushed 
them to the wall, that they were thus fitted j but as a mere matter 
of fact, women were not eligible to customhouse berths because they 
were not men. When they could overcome that little difficulty, 
then the only objection to their employment as custom house clerks 
would be overcome, but not till then. 

This sounded like a ghastly mockery. It was indeed a sorry jest, 
but after all it was but the bald statement of an absurd but terrible 
fact—a fact which sent me back to my humble lodgings at night al¬ 
most bereft of hope. But surely, said I in the morning, there must 


17 


be some department of the government where this unreasonable, this 
anti-American prejudice against employing women, has no weight. 
There surely must be some place under the government where it is 
not a disadvantage to be a woman. So one bright, sunny day, I 
visited the Post Office, and asserted my claims, or rather stated my 
wishes and my wants. Alas! I found that the post office was, as 
far as women were concerned, merely the custom house objections 
duplicated and indorsed : women were as utterly ignored in the one 
as the other. I could have cried. Being only a wortian, I think I 
did weep silently ; but weeping was a luxury, and work with me was 
a necessity, so I dried my tears, and as a dernier resort, I called 
upon that kindly gentleman and eminent public servant, Mr. J. J. 
Cisco. He received me not only courteously, but kindly, and in his 
sympathetic ear I poured my story, my struggles, and my total 
failures. He listened attentively to my narrative, he appreciated 
thoroughly my position, he acknowledged the force of my argument ; 
but u cui bono V’ What could he do ? I asked not charity ; I 
wanted work, and work was the one thing he could not give me, for it 
was not in his power to give. All he could bestow upon me was ad¬ 
vice, and from his standpoint it was sound. He told me u to abandon 
my attempt, for it was attempting the impossible; I was worthy and 
a lady, but there were hundreds of other ladies who needed just what 
I was seeking, and could not obtain their needs; it was useless to 
argue the matter; it was the government as a body that was at fault; 
I must first convince the government, then all the rest was easy; 
until then, what I asked was impossible.^ 

I thanked him, for I knew he spoke the truth, and withdrew in 


2 


18 


silence, the silence of despair. How was I, one woman, one 
average woman, poor and friendless, to move the government of this 
vast country ? I returned to my lonely little room a sadder and a 
wiser woman. 

I cherished no illusions now; they had been effectually dispelled. 
In all this city of New York, in all this metropolis of America, in all 
the thousands of governmental positions here enjoyed by men, there 
was no place provided for its women. The brand of Cain, or worse, 
of mother Eve, was on our brows, and we must smile, be smiled 
upon, and starve as was the average woman’s average lot. 

Heaven forgive me if for a while I mistrusted Providence and 
railed at fate, that had made me what I was. But with time and 
thought I calmed, and as I calmed I strengthened, and strengthen¬ 
ing, I registered a vow to agitate this question of woman’s rights, 
of woman’s claim upon her government for employment, until 
my plea should be heard; and thus I keep my vow. 


THE POINT AT ISSUE. 

Now the point at issue, so far as my own personal experience just 
narrated is concerned, is not that the Collector, Sub-Treasurer or the 
Postmaster did not give me employment at that particular time. Oh! 
no, this might have been the case with any worthy man, who might 
like myself have applied for work, and been told as I was u that there 
was no work for him.” No, my point is this, that in my case, out¬ 
side altogether of the question whether or no there was a place va¬ 
cant which I could fill, there was the question raised of sex, mere sex, 




19 


for wliicli I was certainly not responsible—a question which is 
never so much as thought of in a man. Had there been any office 
vacant, and had any man who applied been capable of filling it, he 
might under certain circumstances have gained the office. But, had 
there been a dozen places vacant, and had I been abundantly capa¬ 
ble of filling each and all, I could under no possible circumstances 
have obtained any one of the twelve, because forsooth, I was guilty 
of the inexcusable blunder of being a woman. 


20 


THE MURMURERS APPROACH. 


But I hear a murmur—a murmur which becomes more and more 
distinct, whose burden is remonstrance and dissent, mingled with some 
real or assumed astonishment and indignation. I see some men, aye, 
and some women lifting up their hands in what might pass for holy 
horror. And now the murmurers approach, and make their protest. 
“ Do w’e understand you,” they exclaim, u to advocate the right of 
women to concern themselves in political affairs ?” u Do we compre¬ 
hend aright when we regard you as wishing to introduce the female 
element into politics?” 

Methinks I see a shudder pass through a portion of my audience at 
the bare idea of such a suggestion. In my mind’s ear I hear an in¬ 
dignant rustling of silks. In my mind’s eye I behold a portentous 
shaking of bonnets as the murmurers thus allude to that btte noir of 
the modern fashionable female mind, the 11 female politician.” 

But alas! that all this virtuous indignation should be wasted! pity 
that all this protestation should be without any basis of foundation; 
for, as it happens, I am not at present advocating the right of woman 
to concern herself in political affairs. I am not concerning myself in 
the slightest with u the female element in politics.” It has nothing 
whatever to do with the matter in hand, for the offices which I con- 



21 


tend should he open to women have, or ought to have nothing directly 
to do with politics. If you ask me directly, u do I believe in women 
having political rights V 1 I can, so far as the subject of this address 
is affected, refuse to answer, for the question has nothing whatever to 
do with the subject. It has no more bearing directly on it, than my 
view’s on morals or religion. You might with equal propriety ask 
me if I was a Catholic or a Swedenborgian, an advocate of round 
dances or a believer in the u blue laws.” 

What has the routine work of a Post Office clerk to do with the 
principles of either the Republican or the Democratic party ? What 
have the accounts of a clerk in the Treasury or Sub-Treasury de¬ 
partment to do with the Foreign or Domestic policy of the adminis¬ 
tration ? Why should a Custom House or Registry clerk concern 
himself, so far as his daily work goes, with the political aspect of 
the country ? 

Too much politics is the confessed curse of this over-governed 
land, and any attempt to make the merely clerical departments of 
the government independent of the political is a step in the right 
direction. So let the murmurers keep silent; let the protesters take 
their seats. 


THE AVERAGE "WOMAN A FORMIDABLE RIVAL OF THE AVERAGE 

MAN. 

And for all the absolute work of the vast majority of the non¬ 
political government offices here referred to—for all the routine 
clerical duties required of their incumbents, women are as well pre- 


22 


pared, or could be with a very little practice in a very little time, 
as amply fitted as the men. Men go into these offices as ignorant 
of their duties as are women. 

Such clerkships under the government as I refer to require no 
life-long training, no abstruse technical preparation ; they are 
comparative^ free to all tolerably educated individuals. A com¬ 
mon school education, with a trifling special practice, will suffice 
for all; and for certain governmental non-political offices women 
are specially and confessedly adapted. Thus, in what is known 
as the “-first division n of the Auditor’s department of the custom 
house, there are employed some one hundred clerks, who have only 
light routine work to perform, and whose tasks do not bring them 
officially into contact with the outside world. What position can 
be more directly adapted to the average woman ? If she could 
have herself the choosing of her work, what fitter work could she 
choose than this ? Again, there are numerous, almost numberless, 
positions connected with the post office which are, as it were, prov¬ 
identially designed for women. Certainly the officials of the 
British government so think: for they act upon the thought. Sir 
James Manners, the English Postmaster-General, has not onlv 
appointed one lady to the position of postmistress with a salary 
of 3,000 a year, but he has given hundreds of minor posts to 
women, and has found in every case that the woman is thoroughly 
suited to the place. 

I know that there are men who, occupying just these govern¬ 
mental positions, convey to the outside world the vague idea of 
tremendous responsibility and unflagging work. But there are 


23 


tricks in every trade, government offices not excepted, and the 
weary look of the government employe is as often due to excessive 
attachment to “ a concha” or u S. O. P*” as to the duties of his 
office. At any rate, I know of hundreds of women who use neither 
brandy nor cigars, who would gladly take a contract to relieve 
them alike of their arduous labors and their cruel responsi¬ 
bility. 

I wish to avoid the charge of being vain. No woman is really 
vain, you know 5 but if all that a leading metropolitan daily journal 
says be true, we women are not only as well fitted for average 
governmental work as the average man, but are better, far better 
adapted for it. 


A NEW YORK DAILY AS AUTHORITY. 

Hear what the New York World says editorially (in answer to a 
letter of mine on the u Average Woman,” which appeared in the 
New York Herald ), on this branch of our theme : u When the average 
woman has prepared herself for average employment, it is safe to 
assert that she will not merely compete with the average man, but 
will actually drive him out of the labor market, for she can live 
cheaper than he can, and work at less wages; she is quicker to 
leam ,* neater in her habits, and less prone to the vices that endanger 
business success.” Now it is not a woman that says all this, but a 
paper; not a female, but a male writer; a writer, too, who does not 
u enthuse” on the subject of woman’s right to labor, and who differs 


24 


from the writer in many essential points. Consequently, his admis¬ 
sion on this point is doubly valuable. 

But with the natural modesty of our sex, we are willing to assume 
that the u World” writer is a little too gallant on this point, probably 
to atone for lack of gallantry on many other points connected with 
our controversy. Still the fact remains, that so far as ability to 
discharge the duties of average governmental office, an average 
woman is a formidable rival of the average man. Consequently, one 
possible argument against woman’s employment in these offices is for¬ 
ever disposed of most effectually. 


LET US HAVE A CHANCE AT THE GLUT. 

“But,” says the socialistic student, the man who knows by heart 
the state of the labor market, and who is infallible in his reading of 
the signs of the times: “ There is a glut in the government clerkship 
market 5 the demand already exceeds the supply; for every office in 
the gift of the government of the United States there are one hun¬ 
dred men clamoring for the gift.” Well, suppose we grant this, 
what then f We nowhere insist that the laws of trade or of supply 
and demand should be altered for our sake. If there is no place for 
women, we have nowhere desired that she should have perforce a 
place. All we women ask is, put us on an absolute equality with 
men. If the labor market is glutted, let us have a chance at the glut. 
We are willing to be refused a place, provided only we have the 
acknowledged right to seek the place. We claim no immunity from 


25 


the ordinary laws which govern humanity; we only demand the 
ordinary opportunities of humanity. That the world is too fhll, and 
that there is too little to do, is a matter which should he no more to 
us than to others. Whatever he the condition of things, it should he 
the same condition precisely to both sexes. 


26 


CIVIL SERVICE REFORM; 


Having thus plunged in medias res , having thus asserted our ideas 
of woman’s right to civil offices, we are now brought face to face 
with one of the great questions which agitate the day, probably the 
question which agitates it most at present, “ Civil Service Reform.” 

A woman who claims for herself and sex the right to hold civil of¬ 
fices, cannot shirk the question of reform in u Civil Service she 
must be either for it or against it. Time was when the slavery ques¬ 
tion agitated all hearts, but the war has settled that. Time was 
when the u Southern policy ” perplexed the country to its core, but 
a decade of peace has laid even that ghost. But the time is now 
when the land is laboring in the throes of a new issue, u Civil Ser¬ 
vice Reform,” an issue which involves the whole country. 

The importance, the almost terrible interest attached to this last 
issue has been attested by the recent tragedy which literally alarmed 
a world—the assassination of James A. Garfield. This crime was 
but the legitimate, or illegitimate offspring of two evils that have so 
far been inseparable from the 11 Civil Service ” of the United States 
—the pernicious greed for office, and the bestowal of office for purely 
party services and partisan ends. 

Had it not been for the rampant growth of these two evils, James 



27 


A. Garfield would be a living man—and Guiteau would not be an 
assassin. 

Slavery was a matter between two sections. The Southern policy 
was a question between two parties. But u Civil Service Reform ” 
is a distinct issue between the politicians of both parties on the one 
side and the people of both sections on the other. 

The great public is in favor of 11 Civil Service Reform of this 
there can be no doubt. But the hack politician, not the true, far- 
seeing, country-loving statesman, but the professiqnal country-savers 
and self-servers, these are against it. Civil Service Reform, effect¬ 
ually carried out, would take the power from their hands—the power 
of place—and would reduce them to the ranks, and then they ask: 
u What would become of the country f ” for politicians always call 
themselves u the country/’ 

To the u hack” of either party the golden rule and the ten com¬ 
mandments are summed up in the famous maxims, u Vae victis,” and ’ 
u To the victor belong the spoils.” In their eyes any and all places in 
the gift of the government are the property of the politicians of the 
party which chances to control the government. All offices in the 
public service, civil or political, are alike at the sole disposal of the 
dominant faction, to be used as the reward of partisan devotion. On 
this platform the u hack ” politician must stand ; withdraw it and he 
must inevitably fall. But the great American people, the people as 
apart from the politicians, are beginning to find by experience that 
they are too much governed —that a too ardent and widespread devo¬ 
tion to politics is growing to be a palpable and terrible curse. They 
find that according to the old system, the duties connected with an 


28 


office are forgotten in the perquisites attached to it. They see that 
the personal fitness of an individual for a position is lost sight of in 
the political claims made to that position by the individual. 

Consequently, in the people’s mind a desire has sprung up and in¬ 
tensified for reform in this respect. The people are beginning to de¬ 
mand that a man shall be fitted for an office before that office shall 
be given to the man. And they are also beginning to learn that 
mere political partisanship is not essential to the faithful discharge 
of a non-political position. Already they begin to see that the prime 
qualifications for a civil office are personal aptitude and personal 
merit—and so far, she who now addresses you is in favor of 11 Civil 
Service Reform.” 

But u Civil Service Reform,” as at present held, does not go far 
enough. It is young yet, timid, modest perchance, and mistrusts 
itself. It should advance one step beyond, one logical step, and 
whilst it makes no distinction of party or persons should likewise 
make no differences of sex. Individual fitness and individual 
character being the great requisites for office, whenever and wherever 
these essentials are found to be combined in any person, whoever he 
or she may be, that person should be placed in the line of that posi¬ 
tion and promotion. 

Such, some day, sooner or later, will be the received code of the 
civil service of these United States; and when that day comes civil 
service reform will obtain the warm approval of every intelligent 
and honest man and woman in the land. 


29 


EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES. 

As for the examination of the candidates for civil offices, this 
must meet with the general indorsement, for this is absolutely essen¬ 
tial to the scheme of the proposed reform. 

How can an applicant’s character be made known save through an 
investigation, an investigation which in itself every worthy male and 
female applicant would desire for his or her own sake. And how 
can an applicant’s mental fitness for an office be determined save by 
a series of experimental inquiries concerning alike the office and 
the applicant. 

Yes, only the vicious, the ignorant, or the unworthy will 
object to a proper examination alike of testimonials and of qualifi¬ 
cations. 

But then the examination must be proper and befitting. It must 
not be needlessly severe, it should not be irrelevantly absurd. And 
yet not a few of the examinations to which an applicant for office is 
subjected are either comic in their irrelevancy or crushing in their 
severity. 


ANOTHER LEAF FROM PERSONAL HISTORY. 

The speaker once subjected herself to one of these crucial tests, 
these civil service examinations, and she now takes this opportunity to 
show the world what they are and w T hat they are not. 


30 


She desired the position of a 11 custom house searcher/’ a woman 
whose duty it is to examine females suspected of smuggling. She 
made her application in due form, in writing, obtaining the names of 
several well-known and prominent gentlemen as vouching for her 
respectability and need of self-support, also a doctor s certificate as 
to her health 5 was then notified of the time and place of the 
destined examination, and on the day appointed made her appear¬ 
ance at the custom house and was sent to a room on the top floor. 
There she found herself one of a score of women, mostly middle- 
aged, worn-looking, sorrow-battered, but unmistakably ladies, poorly 
clad, but attired in a garb which is beyond all price, refinement. 
With this meek-eyed score of rivals she was led into a room where 
several gentlemen awaited her and her companions. After politely 
saluting her, she was handed several sheets of paper in succession, 
each sheet containing printed questions and blanks in which she 
was to write her answers. As fast as she filled one page she was 
expected to sign it with her name and another was handed her in its 
place. 

Now, some of these printed questions were apropos of the situation 
for which she was applying, but only a very few; the majority of the 
interrogatories appertained to subjects, a knowledge of which would 
have been as useful to Julius Oiesar as herself, so far as her special 
fitness for a custom house searcher was concerned. Thus she was 
asked the names of all the generals in the war of 1812, the sources 
of the principal rivers of the world, and the height of the principal 
mountains; points very important possibly to a historian or a geog¬ 
rapher, but technical data which, after all, were neither fair tests of 


31 


a general education, nor absolutely essential to me in my desired 
office of searcher. 

Now, I am a tolerably well educated woman, the equal in general 
information, I presume, of the average of women; but I was not able 
ta answer many of these questions on the spur of the moment, and, 
simple as these questions may sound, I respectfully but decidedly 
doubt if there is one individual out of every hundred who can at a 
moment, without any preparation or refreshing of memory, answer 
them fully and satisfactorily, and, in all probability, the one-lmn- 
dredth one, who can answer them, will be some just graduated boy 
or girl fresh from school, who is really, in true knowledge, the inferior 
of the other ninety-nine. Such special questions as these do not 
afford a gauge of the general education of the party examined in the 
branches of study to which they refer. A person may possess a very 
fair and quite comprehensive knowledge of geography, may know 
tolerably well the main points concerning the distribution of land 
and water on the surface of the globe, the continents, the various 
'Countries, the general facts concerning the chief cities, rivers, 
and mountains, the system of latitude and longitude, and yet 
not have his or her memory burdened with all that detail on the 
subject, which can only be expected of a school girl or a school 
teacher. 

And it is perfectly certain that, so far as the technical duties of a 
-custom house searcher are concerned, a person might serve the 
government with perfect satisfaction and fidelity for fifty years, and 
know nothing of the war of 1812, saving the broad main facts of 
that eventful period. 


32 


Again, many of tlie questions which a female candidate for a 
searchership is compelled to answer, while they are, it is true, con¬ 
nected with custom house matters, are not concerned with her partic¬ 
ular department of the custom house at all. 

Thus, among the sheets which serve me as a sample of wdiat 
the average searcher must know, or at least must answer, were the 
following. One sheet, No. 5, question 2, ran thus—The rates of 
duty on varnish being as follows : if valued at $1.50 or less per 
gallon, 50 cents per gallon and 20 per cent ad val.; if valued at 
over $1.50 per gallon, 50 cents per gallon and 25 per cent ad val., 
wliat would be tlie total duty on 48 casks of varnish, each cask 
containing 43J gallons, and costing $1.40 per gallon ? 

Another, thus : 

If certain sheet-copper weighs 18 ounces per square foot, what 
would be the weight of 375 sheets, each 48 inches long and 14 inches 
wide ? 

Now, in all due respect, but, in the name of common sense, let 
me ask, what had such interrogatories to do with the simple office 
of a searcher, a body-searcher, a female detective f Would it not 
have been much more appropriate, as I half laughingly suggested, 
had I been required to answer questions in anatomy ? so as to 
show that I could tell at a glance the difference between the female 
figure, with or without a number of smuggled articles concealed 
upon it j or, in a moral and religious point of view, could I not have 
been interrogated as to my knowledge of the Lord’s Prayer and 
the Ten Commandments, especially that one of tlie ten which says, 
u Thou shalt not steal,” or that injunction of the Divine Master 


33 

which is peculiarly appropriate to the custom house, u Render unto 
Caesar the things that be Caesar’s?” 

Still I am not ridiculing examinations as examinations; on the 
contrary, I indorse them heartily. I regard them as essential to the 
proper working of u civil service reform.” Only by carrying these 
examinations connected with it too far, we are in danger of rendering 
it absurd j while at the same time by limiting its benefits to one sex 
only, we add to folly, cruelty, and injustice. 

3 


34 


QUERY OF THE KNOWING POLITI¬ 
CIAN. 


But I see some gentleman, some middle-aged gentleman, some 
slirewd, liard-lieaded, successful man of the world and politician, 
beckoning to me, and when he approaches he reminds me that thus 
far I have ignored altogether the very point of the whole affair ; I 
have had nothing to say in regard to that necessarily most important 
element in government matters—“ influence.” “ Must influence,” he 
asks me, in his wondering wisdom, “ must personal and political in¬ 
fluence go for naught in so important a department of the govern¬ 
ment as the distribution of its offices V J “ Does this idea of a per¬ 
sonal fitness and personal need, independent of sex, contemplate the 
doing away altogether with the ordinary influence of social and po¬ 
litical life J ? 77 “ If so, 77 concludes the knowing politician, “your plan 

will never work, for it contemplates an impossibility; so long as man 
is man, so long will influence be influence, especially in office giving, 
which, like kissing, goes by favor j 77 and with this appropriate illus¬ 
tration, the trained politician laughed in my simple face, and smiled 
a well-pleased smile, as of one who feels that lie has made short 
work of an antagonist. 



35 


But I beg the gentleman’s pardon—he has smiled prematurely, 
—his antagonist is not yet vanquished—being a woman, she 
will have the last word—I by no means consider mine a “ Lost 
Cause.” 

For, if by “influence,” this politician means influence that is 
legitimate, the result of time and the development of character, of 
acquaintanceship, family ties and the like, then while I confess with 
him, that “ Civil Service,” like all other departments of government, 
or life itself, would be an impossibility without it, as it must neces¬ 
sarily enter as an element, though a minor one, in every calculation, 
yet I hold that good women are as likely to influence this “ influ¬ 
ence” as good men. If by “influence,” the politician means the di¬ 
rect and inevitable effect produced upon those who have met an indi¬ 
vidual, by that individual’s personal, mental and moral caliber, by 
his or her manner, conversation and address, by his or her testimo¬ 
nials, certificates and recommendations, then with him I hold that 
this “ influence ” must be taken into account, and as a woman, I 
should be only too glad to have it courted, for women, good women, 
true women, can bring this “ influence ” to bear, and bear directly 
and most strongly upon men. 

But if by “ influence,” our sharp but unscrupulous politician 
would imply that peculiar dubious element which figures so mys¬ 
teriously about election times, and which we hear about so plentifully 
in connection with public offices j that wonderful something which 
the knowing ones name with a wink j that sphinx-like something 
which sounds so vaguely, yet which seems to mean so much; that 
something which those who use it most effectually shrink most from 


36 


defining clearly j that compound influence, which when reduced to 
its component parts, means bribery or cajolery, or undue social 
pressure, or nepotism, or corruption, then I hold two things 5 first, 
that such “ influence ” as this should not exercise any weight what¬ 
ever, should not be permitted any longer, even as between man and 
man j that it is an incubus, a blot, a foulness, which has already 
eaten into and cankered our political institutions. Second, that 
true, good, honest women, have none of this 11 influence ” to exert, 
and would not exercise it if they could j and this is a fact that is 
greatly in their favor, and w T hich forms a powerful argument for the 
introduction of woman into 11 Civil Service.” 


ANOTHER PROTEST. 

u But,” I hear some one remark, 11 all this indignation, all this pro¬ 
testation, is very well, very well indeed; it is deserved, and there is 
much of truth in all you say j but nevertheless you must not forget, 
my dear lady, the fact, which even you must admit, that every gov¬ 
ernment’s first duty is to those w T ho help to defend it and support it. 
Now men do both, while women can do neither. Men fight for their 
country in war, and they govern their country* in peace. Women 
neither fight nor vote j consequently, even if all other points w’ere 
equal, a man would possess a better claim upon any office in the gift 
of his government than would a woman. You demand justice, you 
advocate common sense; is not this sense and justice V’ 

I confess it sounds like both. I freely concede that there seems 
to be a basis of truth about this argument, and that it is fair enough 


37 


to appear formidable, and to deserve consideration. So let us con¬ 
sider it forthwith. 

It is true that while women do not vote, men do, and it is likewise 
true that as a vote is in this country the basis of the government, 
the voter has a claim upon the party that may govern. But I, and 
those who think with me contend, that as voting is a purely political 
function, so the legitimate influence, prestige and power which it 
brings should be confined purely to a political sphere, and should 
affect matters only so far as matters are concerned with politics. 

Political affairs as such should be the property of politicians, and 
as women have now in politics no voice, I here claim no political 
office. But surely, positions which are merely clerical or civil, offices 
which have no more to do with politics than with astronomy, offices 
which are no more affected by a party vote than by a comet, 
assuredly these non-political offices should be available for non- 
politicians. 

Aye, more; it seems to me that having nothing else, a woman 
should be the more readily permitted to enjoy these minor offices. Man 
has his vote, his influence, his political power and his political place, 
lie has all the prestige, he has all the greater prizes; is it just that 
he should likewise have all the world beside ? Must there be nothing 
left for her! Shall she not be allowed to feed even upon the crumbs 
that fall from the political table? 

There must be a place provided for the class of whom I write, and 
these government clerkships would be to them a blessed boon, 
havens of help, and arks of safety. Public morality as well as 
private weal pleads in favor of opening these places to women. Give 


38 


a woman a chance for independence, and you give her a chance for 
virtue. Open one more door to labor, and you close one more door 
on vice. Here is, indeed, a field for civil service reform ; here is an 
avenue for woman’s work that should be opened ; here is a chance 
for feminine labor that should be embraced, in the interests of 
womankind and of humanity. 

I have done what I could, by tongue and by pen, to u find a way 
or make one” in this direction. But what can one weak woman do ? 
It needs the hearty co-operation of women to impress the need of this 
reform upon the world ; and above all, it calls for the.influence in 
the premises of our leading men ; it calls for the attention and 
prompt action of men like Secretary of State Frelingliuysen, Secre 
taiy of the Treasury 0. J. Folger, Attorney-General Brewster, Post¬ 
master-General Howe, Hon. John Sherman, Collector Bobertson, 
Hon. Itoscoe Conkling, Hon. J. P. Jones, Hon. Jas. G. Blaine, 
et al., of those who, having authority, feel the responsibility to use 
it aright. 

There can be no nobler field in which even these illustrious states¬ 
men can display their power. 

Peter Cooper has won the gratitude of a world by opening for 

women artistic avenues which ere his time were closed against her. 

© - 

His name mil u smell sweet and blossom in the dust,” because he 
will leave the world of women richer by several avenues of an honest 
livelihood than he found it. 

Who then will do for woman in the civil service of the govern¬ 
ment what this venerable philanthropist has done in the cause of 
art and science? 


39 


Who will be the Peter Cooper of politics? We respectfully com¬ 
mend this question to the consideration of Chester A. Arthur, Presi¬ 
dent of these United States of America, comprising among its popu¬ 
lation fifteen million women. 


f 


40 


AU APPEAL. 


Having now thoroughly, calmly, and without prejudice considered 
the whole broad range of my subject, it only now remains that I 
should address myself to all parties, all men and women directly or 
indirectly interested, all men and women who can control the des¬ 
tinies or the opinions of others. 


TO MEX. 

To the men of these United States I would say, man’s opinion is 
cruelly unjust to women; unjust not from malice but mistake. Men 
are prone to a false delicacy in their views of women, and regard 
female independence and womanly self-support with a nervous, 
baseless species of horror rather than with its deserved meed of 
honor. The very chivalry of man towards women is manifested by 
mistakes. A father or a husband will like a true knight battle with 
the world for a lifetime to rear his darlings in comfort, and yet he 
will stubbornly and unwisely object to so educate his women to en¬ 
able them if need be to do battle for themselves. He will bear with- 


41 


out a murmur the hardships and dangers of the life struggle, but he 
will not suffer those for whom he toils to be armed and fmht for 
themselves beside him. Yes, men are often not only as valiant but 
as foolish as Qon Quixote. And this mistaken chivalry, this false 
delicacy of fathers and husbands, does injustice, not only to them¬ 
selves by overtaxing their energies, but it works bitter evil to the 
dear ones for whom they toil. It renders women helpless, and there¬ 
fore in the great ciisis of life hopeless. When, as happens every day, 
the bread-winner is reduced from affluence to poverty, or when his 
death reveals the fact that only his life stood between his loved 
ones and want, then the fondled and pampered widow and daugh¬ 
ters are found to be as ignorant of real life and as incapable of real 
work as a child. Then they stand on the brink of ruin with folded 
hands and sigh and suffer, when, had the departed one, half fool, 
half martyr, been truly wise as well as loving, they might have had 
some means of livelihood with which to face and fight a frowning 
world. It is for man’s sake as well as woman’s that I appeal to 
man to give every chance for life to woman. Let them be half as 
just to us as they mean to be chivalrous, and our work is accom¬ 
plished. 


TO WOMEN. 


And I now appeal to the great Republic of women who are and 
who must be by interest and sympathy concerned in any question 
which vitally affects woman. Let me appeal to them to exert them¬ 
selves constantly in this cause. It is the inertia of woman that re- 


42 


tards her independence. She does comparatively nothing. She sits 
with folded hands and listens to the unthinking and prejudiced crowd 
around lier ? which insists that she has nothing to do ; and really she 
seems to prefer the empty courtesies which men pay to her sex to the 
honest offer of equal work. Ah ! a gallant’s how on the promenade 
and a smile in the parlor may be a consideration to the woman who has 
the world at her feet, but they will not be worth a moment’s thought 
when she feels the world clutching at her hungry throat. 

To the women of America, then, I would plead in their own best 
behalf, for, after all, it is to woman that woman must look mainly for 
reformation. Were the women of America as earnest in any one ob¬ 
ject, as thoroughly, practically in earnest in any one point whatever, 
as men are habitually in any and every point that concerns their wel¬ 
fare, they could, I am convinced, accomplish that object, in any¬ 
where from twenty-four hours to twenty-four months, in proportion to 
their earnestness and determination. 


TO THE SOCIETY WOMEN. 

And to the society women of the land, the fashionable dowagers, 
the wealthy wives, the dashing belles, I would appeal by all the 
considerations that can sanctify a woman to her sex, not to 
despise their less fortunate though more industrious sisters, who 
only do now what they themselves may be called upon to do 
some day. 

Social position is a necessity to an ordinarily refined woman ; and 


/ 


43 


the mere u right to work ” will justly amount to very little to a wo¬ 
man, if by working she is regarded as lowering her social status. Pe¬ 
cuniary independence and business ambition are considered honorable 
in a man; it should be regarded with equal estimation in a woman. But 
so long as the present prevailing code endures, and a man is deemed 
to gain caste by his own industry, and a woman to lose caste by her 
own exertions, so long a woman’s chances cannot be comparable to a 
man’s. 

Ah ! believe me, it is the lack, the utter barrenness of social life 
which renders the working lady’s existence so dismal and so danger¬ 
ous. It is her social loneliness which ofttimes leads her to a life of 
shame. Believe me, it is the social ostracism which she meets with 
that forms the bitterest drop in the working woman’s cup j it is the 
social scorn of her own class which most deters her from honest indus¬ 
try, and drives her into dubious paths. Ah ! yes, the broad, grand, 
simple truth that men and women need to learn is this—just in propor¬ 
tion as the world widens and extends the legitimate sphere of woman’s 
pecuniary independence and self-support without withdrawing its 
social sanction from her, just in that precise proportion does it narrow 
the range of feminine temptation, just so far does it lessen those pe¬ 
culiar evils to which all women are exposed. When the world has 
thoroughly learned and practiced this truth, the social millenium will 
be indeed at band. 


44 


TO THE LAW MAKERS. 

To the law makers of this free land, its Representatives and 
Senators in Congress assembled, I would plead for law and justice, 
for equal rights to both sexes to support themselves. As Congress¬ 
men, they may have to surrender some minor paltry perquisite; but 
tliev will thereby increase their legitimate influence with that element 
which is of all the most important to a politician in a Republic, their 
influence with the people. 


TO THE MEMBERS OE THE CABINET. 

And I would appeal to those august statesmen, the Members of 
the Cabinet. I ask them, in the name of their mothers, their wives, 
their daughters, and their sisters j I charge them by all that is 
wisest and best for the interests of that glorious country which they 
guard, to see that woman has her modest and unobtrusive place 
under the benign government which they administer. I ask them to 
see that woman is not wholly forgotten in the civil service of the 
government throughout the land, and in the metropolis thereof. 






45 


TO HIS EXCELLENCY CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

And lastly, I appeal to tlie lately risen sun in the political firma¬ 
ment, to him who now holds the highest position in the gift of the 
people, to his Excellency Chester A. Arthur, the President of these 
United States. I beseech him not to pause till, in all his great and 
wise measures, his mother’s sex is included as well as his own. 
Then will all parties praise him—not merely the party of the 
u present / 7 but that grand party which is sure to come, and to come 
with power—the u woman’s party of the future.” 


THE END. 












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